AT&T’s T-Mobile acquisition to benefit Apple, RIM and Google

In a note to investors on Monday, RBC Capital Markets Managing Director Mike Abramsky highlighted several implications surrounding AT&T’s acquisition of T-Mobile USA. Interestingly, RBC sees the merger as having the potential to provide various benefits to each of three staunch rivals — Apple, RIM and Google. For Apple, this deal will drastically increase the company’s addressable market for the iPhone, and could result in an additional 6 to 8 million iPhone subscribers over the next 2 to 3 years. Abramsky also notes that additional pressure could be put on Sprint to offer its own version of the iPhone, which would make the device available from all major U.S. carriers. For RIM, Abramsky writes that while T-Mobile only accounted for between 5 and 7% of RIM’s revenue in 2010, the company could potentially put more BlackBerry devices in the hands of users when devices that would normally be AT&T exclusives become available to T-Mobile’s 46 million subscribers. Finally, RBC’s note points out that while Google may be losing a strong Android partner in T-Mobile, AT&T has shown that it is now committed to Android as a platform, which could lead to better device selection moving forward for former T-Mobile subscribers. AT&T’s acquisition of T-Mobile is expected to close within the next 12 months, pending regulatory approval.